Competition is quite a serious sickness in human nature. We can see it happens in family, siblings, friends, colleagues, partners and even compete to our own self. We like to compete with others. We want to be the best and be top of others. This competitive feeling can control us to do things which others see as stupid or ridiculous. We are scared that others are better than us and so we compete. I remember when my children were little. My brother liked to compare his children with mine in school report cards and other stuff. So I often hide the truth from these people. I often tell them my children are doing ok even though they excelled in their school work. I don't want to put pressure on my children and I don't like people to compare my children with theirs.
Last night we had a great talk on this topic with my children. I asked my girl if her brother is doing better than her, will she get jealous? She said she will. She also admitted that she got jealous with her brother since he was born. She said it in a very truthful way. I understand her feelings but I never experience this kind of jealousy. Since young till now, I don't need to be jealous of my siblings because I have the world in my hands. May be this is how I was brought up. My parents never compared me with others. I had a great childhood.
I know this kind of feelings are hurtful feelings when we can not be better than others. We feel threatened when someone is better than us. I feel sorry for these kind of people who continuously need to compete with others. Some people have a need to compete and win at all costs as a means of maintaining their self-worth. They feel threatened if they find themselves losing. The root of wanting to be better than others is craving and hatred. Actually we have six states of existence in our mind. We can be an animal when we are being ignorant/stupid; we can be a hungry ghost when we are being greedy and crave for more; we can be in hell when we have ill will; we can be Asura when we are full of anger and jealousy; we can be in heaven when we are feeling bliss and happy; we can be human being when we are in between of good and evil. We are living in these six states of existence and we suffer without knowing we suffer. That is where Buddha's teachings come in. Buddha showed us to recognise our human nature; closely observe it and see where it comes from; analyse it and see what is the true nature of these feelings; learn not to let these feelings become our master instead we are mastering these feelings.
